The Deal
by LilGray
Summary: A vampire walks into a bar to discover there's already a vampire sitting having drinks, and an unlikely friendship is born. Number Five in a series of unrelated one-shots inspired by songs. Number One in an as yet unnamed series of related Kol/Caroline One-Shots that includes Dirt. Chronologically this story comes before Dirt. Rated M just to be safe.


**Categories:** The Vampire Diaries

 **Summary** : A vampire walks into a bar to discover there's already a vampire sitting having drinks, and an unlikely friendship is born.

 **Title:** The Deal

 **Series:** Number Five in a series of unrelated one-shots inspired by songs. Number One in an as yet unnamed series of related Kol/Caroline One-Shots that includes Dirt. Chronologically this story comes before Dirt.

 **Author:** Lilly Gray

 **Characters** : Kol Mikaelson, Caroline Forbes. Mentions of Henrik Mikaelson and Bill Forbes

 **Relationships:** Kol Mikaelson/Caroline Forbes

 **Genre:** Hurt/Comfort, Supernatural, Friendship, Drama

 **Rating** : Rated M just to be safe.

 **Beta/Pre-Reader:** None

 **Banners by:** Lilly Gray

 **Word Count:** 2,353

 **Prompt/inspiration:** Written using/inspired by the lyrics to Closer by Nine Inch Nails

 **Status:** Complete

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own **The Vampire Diaries.** The recognizable characters, settings, locations, plot lines, quotes, etc. from the franchise above belong to their respective owners, not me. Also, I don't own the lyrics to Closer they belong to Trent Reznor. I am making no money from this story, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **Author's Notes:** So this story came about because I wanted to use one of the 307 songs I have in a folder full of lyrics to write a one-shot. However, my muse couldn't choose one, so I had some friends pick numbers and then used the songs places in the folder to figure out which song was which number. Courtney Alexis Swartz chose #42, which is 'Closer' by Nine Inch Nails. Hope you enjoy it, Courtney!

Thanks to everyone who picked a number… Five down, twenty-five more one-shots to write! Lol.

 **This is the Prequel to Dirt.**

 **The Deal**

 **By Lilly Gray**

'Help me, I broke apart my insides

Help me, I've got no soul to sell

Help me, the only thing that works for me

Help me get away from myself…'

Walking into a random bar about two hours outside of Mystic Falls I sigh when I spot the blonde curls that fascinate my brother beyond distraction.

So much for avoiding the doppelgänger or her little pals. What to do? Sit down and have that drink I desperately need or leave before the baby vampire notices me and go find some other bar in town to drown my sorrows in.

I remember the first time I saw those curls. Caroline was barely four years old and playing in her yard just after dark. Two other vampires had spotted her as well and were inching closer and closer to what they thought would be an easy meal.

Walking up behind them both I tapped them on the shoulders and then when they turned to face me I ripped out both of their hearts before they could even utter a word.

I disposed of the bodies so young Caroline wouldn't find them, and when I came back, she was inside her house playing with her Barbie's while her father spoke quietly on the phone to some man named Steven.

I saw her again a few months later and watched while she ate a tensely silent meal with her parents.

I came back periodically after that including that fateful day exactly eleven years ago today when her father handed her mother divorce papers and moved out.

I spoke to her that day. Those blonde curls kept getting into her watery eyes while she talked. She wanted to know why her father didn't love her and I didn't have an answer for her, so I just held her while she cried.

I compelled her to forget about me when I left. In fact, every time I spoke with her after that I would end the discussion with a compulsion to make her forget she had ever met me. I didn't want her to forget me, but I knew she'd be safer if she did. Mikael would have tortured her, child or not if he had known that she had become the reason I stayed alive.

She tore down my reason and helped me become somebody else, somebody perfect in her eyes. I wasn't the monster everyone including my own family saw when they looked at me. I was just Kol, the slightly goofy guy who laughed at her silly jokes. I protected her, and she helped me get away from myself. I may not have had a soul to sell anymore, but she made me think maybe, just maybe, the devil hadn't taken it so long ago.

'…You can have my isolation

You can have the hate that it brings

You can have my absence of faith

You can have my everything…'

I wasn't alone when I was with Caroline. My brother may not have ever daggered me for more than an hour or two at a time, but that led to a very isolated existence because the rest of the world needed to believe I was locked away somewhere in that coffin. Caroline took my isolation and made it bearable. She took my hate and my absence of faith and basically my everything, and she made me whole again.

And then I failed to protect her. I had watched her for thirteen years, and when it counted most, I dropped the ball. I knew of the car accident almost as soon as it happened. I visited her in the hospital and knew the prognosis wasn't favorable, so I fed her my blood to heal her. Then when the Bennett Witch convinced Damon Salvatore to save her, I compelled him to believe he had fed her his blood just like her friends wanted him to do. I made a grave error though, I didn't count on Katerina sneaking into my Caroline's hospital room and smothering her while the copious amounts of my blood were in her system.

I'm brought out of my memories by Caroline sighing and saying just loud enough for me to hear, "Great, just great. I drove two and a half hours away from Mystic Falls so I can drink in peace without my friends or the Mikaelsons interfering and one of the people I'm avoiding just had to walk into the same bar as me."

Walking up to the bar I tell her, "Darling, I promise to pretend you're not here if you pretend I'm not here and that way we'll both get what we want."

She smiles for a moment and then covers it with a frown before she nods so I pull up a stool and sit. She looks at me sideways for a moment and then tells me, "I'm a chatty drunk just so you know so if we're going to be pretending we're not here you might want to sit farther away."

Chuckling I tell her, "I'll take my chances, Darling."

She nods, and when the bartender comes over, I order a bottle of their best Scotch and hope it's not too watered down.

'…Help me, tear down my reason…

…Help me you make me perfect

Help me become somebody else…'

We both drink in peace for a good half hour before she asks, "So why are you drowning your sorrows two hours away from home?"

Sighing, I decide maybe a little conversation might do me some good, and when it's over, I'll just compel her to forget like old times, so I tell her, "I'm drinking in memory of my brother."

She frowns and asks, "Finn? Wasn't he trying to kill you?"

Shaking my head, I tell her, "Not Finn. When we were human, we had a younger brother, Henrik. He died roughly 1,009 years ago today if I did my math right and figured out the date correctly. Anyway, I always have a few drinks in his memory on this date."

She bobs her head and says, "Oh, I'm sorry for your loss."

That's so very Caroline to give me her condolences for a death that happened over a thousand years ago. Still, I nod back and then even though I'm pretty sure I know the answer I ask, "Thank you. Why are _you_ drowning your sorrows two hours away from home?"

Frowning she tells me, "I always get drunk on this day. This year and last I came _here_ to forget because compulsion suddenly made getting served a whole lot easier. Anyway, my dad left my mom and me exactly eleven years ago today, and now he's dead too because he chose not to complete the transition."

I raise my glass towards her and tell her, "To those who have gone before us."

She raises her glass and clinks it with mine before saying, "Cheers."

She takes a sip of her fruity drink before I chuckle and ask, "What exactly are you drinking? It doesn't smell like there is enough alcohol in it to get a vampire drunk, too much fruit."

Giggling she nods and says, "I'm not even sure what this one is called. A woman was in here before you got here and she was drinking one, and it smelled good, so I ordered the same thing she was drinking. It's tasty, but you're right it won't get me drunk."

She waves the bartender over and orders a bottle of Evan Williams. I nod, and after her new drink has been poured, I raise my glass again and say, "To numbing the pain."

She adds, "Even if only for a little while," then she clinks her glass against mine and takes a sip."

She frowns and says, "I'll have to ask Damon what kind of Bourbon he has at his house because this pales in comparison."

Chuckling I tell her, "If he's got any taste he drinks Happy Van Winkle."

She giggles but nods and then asks, "So, Kol, since it's not every day I find myself with the opportunity to just shoot the breeze with a creature that has lived for ten centuries and then some, out of curiosity what was your favorite period in history?"

I barely pause a beat before I tell her, "Honestly, this period is probably my favorite because of modern technology."

She nods again and then asks, "You ever meet any famous people from history?"

Chuckling I tell her, "You weren't kidding when you said you're a chatty drunk."

Giggling again she shrugs and says, "I _did_ warn you before you sat down."

I grin and answer her previous question, "I've met and in some cases called a couple of historically important people my friends."

Grinning she bounces on her stool a little and then turns to face me and ask, "Like who?"

Smiling I tell her, "Elizabeth I is probably the most famous one… I remember the first time I saw her she was just a child then, barely two if I recall correctly, and her mother was about to be executed…"

Five hours later Caroline and I are pleasantly buzzed though not actually drunk thanks to our being vampires when the Bartender calls out, "Last Call."

I order another drink for both of us and tell her, "You know you're not so bad when you're not around your little do-gooder friends."

She giggles as only a slightly inebriated woman can and says, "Yeah, well, you're not so bad when you're not, you know, trying to kill everyone. Actually, you're exactly like I remember."

Her eyes widen when I ask, "You remember me?"

She giggles again and says, "Umm oops, I was hoping you wouldn't know that, but yes."

My eyes are wide, and I can't wrap my mind around it, so I ask, "How?"

She giggles once more and says, "I transitioned Kol, thanks for giving me your blood and saving me, by the way. Anyway, I transitioned, so I magickally remembered every compulsion ever placed on me and all the conversations my childhood friend, Kol, made me forget to protect me from Mikael. It means I also know that Klaus doesn't dagger you for more than a few hours at a time, but don't worry, your secrets have always been safe with me."

Narrowing my eyes, I ask, "You're not angry?"

Smiling she asks, "Angry about what exactly?"

Frowning and narrowing my eyes I tell her, "Oh I don't know, me erasing your memories, me feeding you my blood without asking for permission and essentially turning you into a vampire, either would do."

She places her soft hand on mine and tells me, "I already said I know you took my memories to protect me and if you hadn't given me your blood I'd be dead right now."

Shaking my head, I tell her, "No you wouldn't, the Bennett Witch convinced Damon to give you his blood. I just made him think he already had because I'd already healed you, but they had independently decided to do it not knowing I had already fed you copious amounts of my blood."

She smiles more fully and says, "Who knows, maybe they would have waited too long, either way, _you_ saved my life that night, not them and you had nothing to do with me becoming a vampire unless you compelled Katherine to kill me?"

Shaking my head, I tell her, "Darling if I had wanted to turn you I would have killed you myself not left it to others to do. When I fed you my blood, I had every intention of you growing old and living a normal human life."

Nodding she pats my hand and says, "See, so you're not to blame, _Katherine_ is to blame for me having pointy teeth."

I don't really know what to say to that, so I just go back to drinking my Scotch. When our drinks are done, I turn and tell her, "This was nice, we should have drinks more often."

She giggles again, and nodding says, "I'm free on Tuesdays, Thursdays and most Saturdays."

My eyebrow shoots up, and I ask, "You, a teenage girl with lots of friends _and_ a boyfriend, are regularly free on Saturday nights? How is that even possible?"

Smiling she shrugs and says, "My boyfriend doesn't usually take me out, he's more of a stay in kind of guy unless there's some town function he can't get out of attending, which is why I said _most_ Saturdays, not all. As for my friends, well, they've been too busy for little ole me, well, unless they need me to distract your brother. So how about this, I'll agree not to attack you or your family anymore _or_ help anyone else do it, and you agree not to attack my friends and me, and we'll have drinks on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and most Saturdays. Oh, and we won't hold each other responsible if our friends or family attack us or those we consider ours and we're allowed to defend ourselves and those we care about. Our agreement only applies to the two of us."

Smiling I stick out my hand, and when she grabs hold of it I shake it and tell her, "You, Darling, have yourself a deal,"

She stands and wobbles just a little before saying, "Good, then I'll see you on Thursday night around 9."

I nod and watch her walk out the door. Just before she closes the door, she turns back and waves a little wave and then the door shuts behind her.

Smiling I throw some money in the Bartender's tip glass and then leave out the same door Caroline used. I ran here instead of driving so I turn towards Mystic Falls and begin my walk home with a bit more bounce in my step than what I've walked with in a long, long time.

'…Through every forest, above the trees

Within my stomach, scraped off my knees

I drink the honey inside your hive

You are the reason I stay alive.'

 **The End**


End file.
